1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an electrical connector, and more particularly to a grounded board-to-board connector.
2. Description of the Related Art
Board-to-board connector assembly generally includes a plug and a receptacle connectors respectively mounted on two printed circuit boards and mated with each other for mechanical and electrical interconnection therebetween, whereby the corresponding printed circuit boards can be electrically connected with each other for signal transmission.
The conventional board-to-board connector assembly can be referred to U.S. Pat. No. 5,915,976 which discloses a plug and a corresponding receptacle connector. The receptacle connector includes a housing, a number of contacts disposed in inner opposite sides of the insulative housing, and a pair of shielding plates positioned on outer opposite sides of the insulative housing. Each shielding plate has a number of hooks extending from a bottom end thereof. The hooks extend into the insulative housing and contact with predetermined contacts for forming a grounding path to filter noises and EMI (electromagnetic interference).
With high speed and high frequency signals transmitting in the board-to-board connector assembly, contacts of the connector assembly generate much more quantity of heat comparing with low speed and low frequency signals transmission. However, there is no enough room inside the mated connector assembly for meeting the requirements of heat dissipation. Thus, an appropriate approach is to increase the height of the receptacle connector to provide additional room. Accordingly, the shielding plate has to be heightened to match the heightened receptacle connector. Whereas, such heightened shielding plate is readily warped in manufacturing, which will cause the contact between the hooks of the shielding plate and the predetermined contacts unstable or even break, thereby degrading the effect of filtering EMI and resulting in poor transmission of signals.
Hence, an improved electrical connector is required to overcome the disadvantages of the prior art.
A major object of the present invention is to provide an electrical connector having a stable and reliable grounding means for filtering noises and EMI.
In order to achieve the object set forth, an electrical connector comprises an insulative housing, a plurality of signal contacts, a grounding contact, a shielding member, and a grounding member. The insulative housing defines a plurality of passageways therein. The signal contacts and the grounding contact are received in the passageways of the insulative housing. The shielding member is attached on an outer side of the insulative housing. The grounding member is attached to bottom of the insulative housing and comprises a base portion, an arm portion, and a space defined between the base portion and the arm portion. The base portion tightly abuts the grounding contact and the arm portion tightly abuts the shielding member, thereby forming a stable and reliable grounding path between the grounding contact and the shielding member.